Sell Out with Me Tonight

DICKINSON, ND — The Bismarck Bobcats' offense delighted a packed house Tuesday at the Dickinson Recreation Center, putting up five goals en route to a 5-1 win over the Minot Minotauros in an exhibition game Tuesday in the Queen City.

It took just 1:57 for the Cats to get the crowd of 1,113 roaring as rookie forward Jared Pike collected a Tony German rebound and snapped a low shot past Minot goalie Tanner Holmes for a quick 1-0 lead.

On the Bobcats' second penalty kill of the night, second-year forward Alex Strand turned defense into offense: creating a breakaway off a blocked shot and dekeing out Holmes before tucking home a short-handed goal for a 2-0 edge with 7:37 remaining in the first.

Minot got on the board with with 6:01 left in the middle frame thanks to some special teams scoring of their own when forward Tim Athley grabbed a loose puck on a scramble in front of Bobcat netminder Hunter Shepard and wristed it home to cut the score to 2-1.

The Bobcats' power play dialed up a response in the dying seconds of the frame when Oskars Batna twisted home a rebound from a German point shot to restore a two-goal edge at 3-1 with just 12 ticks to go in the stanza.

While the game remained close through most of the third, the Cats pulled away in the final five minutes on strikes from Harrison Aide and Logan Rivard for the final margin of 5-1.

Shepard made 25 saves for the exhibition victory; Holmes took the loss on 21 stops.

Regular season play will now resume for the Bobcats as they make their only trip of the season to Riverside Arena for a two-game against the Austin Bruins starting Friday at 7:00pm.

Live coverage of Friday's tilt against the first-place Bruins will begin at 6:30pm locally on SuperTalk 1270, KLXX-AM, the radio home of Bobcat Hockey, and worldwide online at NAHL.FASTHockey.com, the official web television partner of the North American Hockey League.

Though the 2014-15 season is now under way, there is still time to order season tickets for the year; fans who want to lock in their seats for the entire campaign should call the Bobcat office at 222-3300 today!